Industry News
Leave independent sector alone, Tories urge
Posted on 22nd November 2007
David Cameron has called on the government to tackle failing comprehensives rather than attack independent schools over their charitable status.
Speaking to BBC One's Breakfast programme, he said the priority should be driving up standards in state schools and not the private sector which is "doing fine".
"I would leave them as they are, we won't improve education in Britain by attacking a bunch of good schools," Mr Cameron stressed.
However, he agreed that private schools need to meet external rules to qualify for charitable status.
The Conservative party recently pledged to provide an additional 220,000 school places, claiming a revolution in the supply of education is necessary to raise standards.
It suggested a new system modelled on that in Sweden be developed in Britain, where parents can remove their child from a state school and send it to an independent state school, which receives the funding associated with that pupil.
© Adfero Ltd